GDB attribution policy (Re: [PATCH v2 2/3] Add FreeBSD/mips architecture.)

[Pedro Alves]

FYI, I've added this to the wiki now:

 https://sourceware.org/gdb/wiki/ContributionChecklist#Attribution

Thanks,
Pedro Alves

On 12/16/2016 12:22 PM, Pedro Alves wrote:

> IMO, "contributed by" "written by", etc. attribution statements are best not
> added to source files, and are better placed in the "Contributors" node in
> the manual [1], which seems to exist exactly for this purpose.
> 
> I see a few advantages:
> 
> - It ends up surviving even if these new files are deleted in the future.
> 
> - It's discoverable by end users too, unlike some comment deep in some
>   source file.
> 
> - Doesn't get inaccurate over time, as other contributors touch / rework / add
>   to / mostly rewrite the code over the years, who understandably won't
>   remember or won't feel comfortable with touching the original "written by"
>   notes.
> 
> For similar reasons, a few years back, glibc explicitly stopped accepting
> attribution statements in sources, as can be seen in their version of the
> contribution checklist [2].  I believe the discussion that led to that glibc
> policy started here [3].
> 
> I've discussed this with other GDB maintainers off list and it seems
> there's general agreement to follow such a policy in GDB as well.
> 
> [1] - https://sourceware.org/gdb/current/onlinedocs/gdb/Contributors.html#Contributors
> [2] - https://sourceware.org/glibc/wiki/Contribution%20checklist#Attribution
> [3] - https://sourceware.org/ml/libc-alpha/2012-04/msg00339.html